U.S. patent number 6,157,808 [Application Number 08/893,258] was granted by the patent office on 2000-12-05 for computerized employee certification and training system.
This patent grant is currently assigned to GPU, Inc.. Invention is credited to Gerald T. Hollingsworth.
United States Patent |
6,157,808 |
Hollingsworth |
December 5, 2000 |
Computerized employee certification and training system
Abstract
Disclosed is a computer system and a method for a computer-based
data integration and management processing system and a method to
support an efficient management of employee development, training
and performance improvement in a performance-competence based
organization. The present invention includes an integrated system
that provides an ability to develop training material, career paths
or to determine an employee's qualifications and performance. The
present invention provides comprehensive support for job and task
analysis; learning objective development; standards and processes;
objective, reference based test items; examination and evaluations;
training program identification and content description; training
scheduling; training-evaluation documentation; and reporting. Each
job defined in the current system has specific duties, tasks and
skills associated with an identified job. Because the specific
skills can be represented by accepted standards of certification;
the system is able to establish an association between the
certifications and employees responsibilities. This association
permits the system to instantly identify the level of qualification
of any employee and verify that the employee is qualified to
perform the duties assigned.
Inventors: |
Hollingsworth; Gerald T. (Toms
River, NJ) |
Assignee: |
GPU, Inc. (Morristown,
NJ)
|
Family
ID: |
26687723 |
Appl.
No.: |
08/893,258 |
Filed: |
July 16, 1997 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
434/350;
434/219 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G09B
7/02 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G09B
7/02 (20060101); G09B 7/00 (20060101); G09B
003/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;434/362,322,323,219,350-353,118,64,65,66,69 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Harrison; Jessica J.
Assistant Examiner: Clayton; Sheila
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Muckelroy; William Lawrence Gary N.
Lipson, Esq.
Parent Case Text
The applicant claims a filing date of Jul. 17, 1996 based on the
filing of a provisional application by the applicant having a Ser.
No. 60/015,722.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. An improvement in a computerized training system for use in
industries wherein a person operating an industrial system is
required to have at least one certificate or license issued by a
government, the computerized training system being of a type having
therein:
(a) a qualification module comprising personalized input data
indicative of personal information of at least one employee, the
qualification module includes performance information, compliance
information, certification information, and evaluations;
(b) a job module having at least one job description having a job
identifier, each employee having a link to at least one job
identifier;
(c) a training module having training material and at least one
training lesson, at least one course having at least one lesson
plan, the course is linked to at least one training lesson and
associated with at least one employee, the training materials are
associated with at least one training lesson for facilitating
access to the training materials, the training module having a
compliance means for evaluating the compliance information as it
relates to each employee;
(d) a cycle having at least one lesson that is to be presented in
at least one scheduled session, and a cycle means for linking the
employee to one of the scheduled sessions; and
(e) a task module having at least one task linked to the job
identifier, the task containing at least one skill, at least one
optimal training method and at least one enabling objective, the
enabling objective is linked to at least one question such that the
enabling objective provides a link from a particular task to a
particular question, procedures and references and an exam, the
procedures and references are linked to the questions and the
questions may contain a link to an exam, the improvement in the
system comprising:
(f) an associating module for associating one or more skills with a
certification, associating one or more certifications with a job
wherein an employee must possess the associated certifications in
order to be qualified to perform the job.
2. An improvement in a computerized employee training system of the
type having:
(a) a qualification module comprising personalized input data
indicative of personal information of at least one employee;
(b) a job module being associated with the qualifications
module;
(c) a training module having training material and at least one
training lesson, the training module being associated with the job
module and the qualification module; and
(d) a task module having at least one task linked to the job
identifier, the task containing at least one skill, at least one
optimal training method, and at least one enabling objective, the
enabling objective is linked to at least one question the
improvement in the computerized training system comprising:
(e) an associating module for associating one or more skills with a
certification and associating one or more certifications with a job
whereby the employee must possess the associated certifications in
order to be qualified to perform the job; and,
(f) a certification checking module for periodically checking
employee certifications having a status to identify and report a
change in the status of the certifications, whereby the
computerized training system is transformed into a computerized
training and certification system.
3. A system as claimed in claim 2, further including
procedures and references and an exam, the procedures and
references is linked to the questions, and the questions may
contain a link to at least one exam.
4. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein
the qualification module includes performance information,
compliance information, certification information, and
evaluations.
5. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein
the job module includes at least one job description having a job
identifier, and each employee has a link to at least one job
identifier.
6. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein
each course is linked to at least one training lesson and at least
one employee.
7. A system as claimed in claim 4, wherein
the training materials are linked to at least one training lesson
for facilitating access to the training materials, the training
module further including a compliance means for evaluating the
compliance information for each employee.
8. A system as claimed in claim 6, further including
a course including at least one training lesson, each training
lesson further including an exam, the exam further including at
least one question, and a lesson plan containing at least one
course.
9. A system as claimed in claim 8, further including
a cycle having at least a single lesson that is to be presented in
at least one scheduled session.
10. A system as claimed in claim 9, wherein
the cycle is to be presented in at least two scheduled
sessions.
11. A system as claimed in claim 9, further including
a cycle means for linking the employee to one of the at least one
scheduled sessions.
12. A system as claimed in claim 4, further including
a means for generating reports based on information available to
the system.
13. A system as claimed in claim 12, wherein
one report identifies compliance information associated with a
selected employee.
14. A system as claimed in claim 12, wherein
one report contains information needed to create independent
schedules making it possible to assign employees to selected jobs
based on the job requirements.
15. A system as claimed in claim 2, further including
a means for identifying the skills that are necessary for the
employee to become certified for a specified job.
16. A system as claimed in claim 2, further including
a means for modeling data, the means for modeling permits a display
of data that exists in the system in varying degrees of detail.
17. In a computerized method for training employees having the
steps of:
(a) storing job positions including associated duties and each
certification required by a government for each stored job
position;
(b) storing tasks and associating each of the job positions with
from zero to many tasks;
(c) storing standards and associating each task with a
standard;
(d) storing an enabling objective for each of the tasks, the
enabling objective being the result of correlating multiple related
skills into the enabling objective, the enabling object
representing skills that are required to successfully perform the
associated task;
(e) validating an employee's mastery of the skills that are
associated with the required tasks;
(f) storing training methods and associating each task with a
training method;
(g) delivering training to employees which includes the steps of
creating a cycle, scheduling instructional events, enrolling
students, documenting attendance and documenting performance of
each employee who receives the training; an improvement in the
method comprising the additional step of certifying the employee,
said certifying step further comprising the steps of:
(h) storing job positions including associated duties; and
(i) storing and associating each certification required by a
government for each stored job position with an employee; and
(j) assessing the training material for compliance with user
provided requirements.
18. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein the user provided
requirements are government regulations.
19. A method as recited in claim 17, further including assigning at
least one certification to at least one employee based on the
mastery by each last said employee of one or more skills;
associating one or more skills with a certification, associating
one or more certifications with a job; and
periodically checking employee certifications to identify and
report a change in status of the certifications.
20. A method as claimed in claim 18, further including assessing
skills of a prospective employee to determine which skills need to
be learned by the employee in order to successfully perform an
identified job; and assessing skills of current employees to locate
the employee who possesses the most skills that are required to
perform an identified job.
Description
BACKGROUND
One key to successfully operating a facility is the effectiveness
of the training delivered to plant operations and support
personnel. The character and quality of the instructors are
critical elements of that effectiveness. Also crucial is supporting
management and the instructors with tools that enable delivery of
consistent, high quality, job related instruction and support
associated record keeping and audit requirements.
Existing systems and methods for work force planning and
occupational readjustment, have traditionally concentrated mainly
on the manual analysis of an individual's skills, with little or no
emphasis on a related job analysis or needs analysis of potential
employers. Additionally, the current state of the art fails to link
training resources and new training requirements as part of an
overall approach.
In highly regulated industries such as nuclear energy, airline,
hazardous waste management, etc., one of the requirements placed
upon operators is to ensure that all personnel are in-fact
qualified to perform each of the duties that they are assigned to
perform. For example, nuclear facilities are governed according to
the regulations outlined in 10 CFR 55 (Jan. 1, 1993), et seq. These
regulations establish procedures and criteria for the issuance of
licenses to operators and senior operators of utilization
facilities (nuclear facilities) licensed pursuant to the Atomic
Energy Act of 1954, as amended, or section 202 of the Energy
Reorganization Act of 1974, as amended, and 10 CFR 50 (Jan. 1,
1993).
Although formal training programs, job experience and an
understanding of procedural requirements can help an employee,
there is little systematic help available to provide an assurance
to an employer that the employee possess the necessary
certifications and licenses to perform a particular task or duty,
and is in compliance with all applicable statutes and
regulations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,468 issued to Silver, et al. on Apr. 26, 1977,
discloses a system which relates to gaining knowledge of specific
apparatus, tools, or processes. It serves to teach a technician how
to troubleshoot and repair an apparatus and functions primarily as
a training device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,772 issued to Slade, et al. on Jun. 9, 1987,
discloses a training tool designed to be used by students to
develop specific skills based upon an application provided stimuli.
The stimuli are altered based on user responses to output that is
generated by the training tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,384 issued to Slade on Sep. 5, 1989, relates to
an interactive learning approach rather than the development of
training to enhance required competence of the workers assigned to
specific jobs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,208,869 issued to Holt on May 4, 1993, describes an
application specific to the banking field and is not directed to
personnel training activity. This system is directed to a character
recognition tool directed specifically to written numerals.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,294 issued to below on Oct. 5, 1993, describes
a mechanism for the association of stored text based information.
The association is based upon common attributes of the text based
data which are or maybe classified by context. Information may then
be retrieved by context in a method that is similar to methods
employed by typical Internet search engines or library locator
applications. The mechanism does not provide the user with a
graphic rich display of relationships that exist between an
employee and the tasks, skills, learning objectives and referenced
based objectives and criteria that are required for adequate job
competence.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,270,920 issued to Pearse, et al. on Dec. 14, 1993,
refers to a system designed to produce a schedule for training air
crew or others based upon available training services and user
initiated requests. It does not provide for the integration of
training materials with parent job competencies or tasks and does
not maintain a history of the completion of training.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,673 issued to Fan on Dec. 16, 1994, discloses a
system to evaluate "verbal" responses or text based responses in
relation to some defined criteria. It provides a pseudo-intelligent
tool for the determination of perception as reported by a sample
population.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,694 issued to Parrish, et al. on May 15, 1995,
discloses a system for assessing an individual's acquisition of
specifically identified skills and abilities and the relationship
of those skills and abilities to an identified occupation. The
system as described in the Parish patent may be characterized as an
attempt to embody an employee selection process into a computer
based system.
SUMMARY
Against the foregoing background, it is a primary object of the
present invention to provide a user with a graphic rich display of
relations that exist between an employee and the tasks, skills,
learning objectives and referenced based objectives and criteria
required for a defined minimum competence.
It is contemplated that the present invention can be implemented
utilizing a variety of designs and languages. In one contemplated
embodiment the present invention is developed in an object oriented
fashion and comprises the following functions:
a qualification module including performance information,
compliance information, certification information, and
evaluations;
a job module having at least one job description having a job
identifier, it is contemplated that each employee has a link to at
least one job identifier;
a training module having training material and at least one
training lesson, at least one course, each course having at least
one lesson plan, the course is linked to at least one training
lesson and associated with at least one employee, the training
materials are associated with one or more training lessons to
facilitate access to the training materials, the training module
also includes a compliance means for evaluating the compliance
information as it relates to each employee;
a cycle includes at least a single lesson that is to be presented
in at least one scheduled session, a cycle means for linking an
employee to one scheduled session; and
a task module having at least one task linked to a job identifier,
the task contains a reference to at least one skill, at least one
optimal training method and at least one enabling objective. An
enabling objective is the result of correlating multiple related
skills into an objective statement. The enabling objectives are
linked to questions and the questions are linked to procedures or
references. The enabling objective provides a link associating a
particular task with a particular question. In addition, the
question may be linked to zero or more exams.
The present invention is a tool to support the efficient management
of employee development, training and performance improvement in a
performance/competency based organization. The present invention
offers an integrated system that provides one application that
instructional staff, human resource professionals, managers, line
supervisors and employees may access to develop training materials,
career paths or to check on current status or qualifications and
performance.
It is contemplated that the present invention may be used as a
training development tool. The present invention provides full
support for job and task analysis; learning objective development;
standards and processes; objective, reference based test items;
examinations and evaluations; training program identification and
content description; training scheduling and training/evaluation
documentation and reporting. It is contemplated that a process for
skills identification will be added at a later time.
Because the present invention includes certification maintenance
tools, training plans may be developed based on a known or
anticipated requirement of existing qualified personnel. Since
every position has requirements/certifications, and every employee
has a job, the continuing training needs for any position can be
quickly identified and training plans can be more rapidly and
effectively developed as compared with systems that are currently
available.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for
the identification of skills and licenses which an employee needs
to become competent or certified for a given trade or job. It is
another object of the present invention to identify and report, for
each employee job/task combination, that the employee is in
compliance with all applicable statutes and regulations related to
training, development and licensing of personnel.
It is another object of the present invention to perform a task
analysis resulting in an importance factor being assigned to each
task.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system
that permits an administrator to create independent schedules and
assign an employee based on actual job and knowledge
requirements.
It is a further object of the present invention to accept user
supplied data to a modeled process. The modeled process permitting
display of the data in varying degrees of detail. The present
invention further provides the user with a graphic rich display of
the relationships that exist between an employee and the tasks,
skills, learning objectives and referenced based objectives and
criteria required for job competence. It is contemplated that the
structures within the present invention are highly refined and
stored as business objects and classes which ensure that the
administrator follow the modeled process and allows for the most
efficient method for employee development.
It is yet a further object of the present invention that the
employee skills function utilize the competency based model. The
competency based model presumes the pre-determination of skills
compiled as competencies and represented in the present invention
by validated certifications.
It is contemplated that every position or job has specific duties,
tasks and skills associated with the position or job; and mastery
of those skills may be represented by accepted standards of
certification. As such, the certifications may be directly
associated with responsibilities that employees hold. Another
object of the present invention is to instantly identify the level
of qualification of any employee and verify that he or she is in
fact qualified to perform assigned duties. This reporting
capability serves to reduce the employer's exposure to the
liability of unqualified workers performing tasks which are
potentially hazardous to the employee themselves, to others and to
the environment.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For a more complete understanding of the present invention and for
further objects and advantages thereof, reference may now be had to
the following description taken in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1A is a high level data model representing the general
processing of the present invention;
FIG. 1B is a continuation of the high level data model as shown in
FIG. 1A;
FIG. 2 is a class diagram which includes those classes designed to
contain employee specific information;
FIG. 3 is a class diagram which includes those classes which are
designed to map the relationships that exist between employee and
job requirements;
FIG. 4 is a class diagram which includes Graphical User Interface
(GUI) classes providing a user an interface to view and update
employee information. Also depicted in FIG. 4 are the screens
required to develop associations between other entities;
FIG. 5 is a class diagram which includes GUI classes providing a
user an interface to view and update job and certification
information. Also depicted in FIG. 5 are the screens required to
develop associations between the entities enumerated herein;
FIG. 6 is a class diagram which includes those classes which are
responsible for managing various aspects and characteristics of
task performance;
FIG. 7 is a class diagram which includes those classes that are
directly related to creating, maintaining and administering a
training program;
FIG. 8 is a class diagram which includes GUI classes providing a
user an interface to view and update cycle information. FIG. 8 also
includes screens required to develop associations between the cycle
and other entities;
FIG. 9 is a class diagram which includes GUI classes providing a
user an interface to view and update training program information.
FIG. 9 also includes screens required to develop associations
between the training program information and other entities;
FIG. 10 is a class diagram which includes GUI classes providing a
user an interface to view and update training program scheduling
information;
FIG. 11 is a class diagram which includes GUI classes providing a
user an interface to view and update training program, course,
lesson and training setting information;
FIG. 12 is a class diagram which includes classes used to create
and maintain student evaluation;
FIG. 13 is a class diagram which includes GUI classes providing a
user an interface to view and update evaluation and question
information. FIG. 13 also includes screens used to develop an
association between questions and evaluations;
FIG. 14 is a class diagram which includes GUI classes providing a
user an interface to view and update evaluation schedules and
results information;
FIG. 15 is a class diagram which includes classes designed to
permit a user to create and apply filters dynamically to reports
produced by the present invention; and
FIG. 16 is a process flow diagram depicting one embodiment of the
present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The following definitions are presented to facilitate an
understanding of the structure and purpose of the various entities
in the present invention:
"Activity type" is a general condition under which tasks are
performed or expected to be performed.
"Certification" is an accepted and validated representation of
competence.
"Course" is a general body of required knowledge or collection of
instructional topics with attributes that are common to each
instructional topic.
"Cycle" is a subset of a program-period during which specific
instructional activities are scheduled. A cycle is similar in
character to a semester.
"Duty Area" is a functional area of responsibility, physical
system, or category of tasks.
"Employee" is a person employed or retained by an organization to
perform work. An employee, for purpose of reporting, may also be a
visitor to the organization requiring some degree of training prior
to entering an area having restricted access (i.e. radiation areas,
biohazard areas, hazardous material areas, security areas,
etc.).
"Evaluation" is a scheduled assessment of student behavior,
psychomotor ability, skills mastery or cognitive ability.
"Job" is a description of responsibility comprising several
discreet units of work.
"Job Requirement" is a certification that an employee must hold to
be capable of satisfactory job performance. More particularly, the
job requirement describes skills that the employee must perform
competently to be considered successful in the assigned job.
"Lesson" is a unit of instruction associated with a course. Lessons
are linked to a course for curriculum development purposes. The
lesson is available to link to other programs without respect to
the discipline of the program.
"Period" is an instance of a program having an established
beginning and ending date. Period also refers to a global period of
time during which various instructional events may occur.
"Program" is a representation of an external document that
specifies content or sequence of training which may or may not have
a minimum duration for completion.
"Shift" is a convenient method to group and identify employees
having similar assignments or work schedules.
"Task" is a discrete unit of work, with a definable beginning and
ending point, described and associated with a selected job.
"Task Navigator" is a graphical tool used to visualize the
relationship between jobs, tasks and related information.
In one implementation of the present invention the following
hardware and software configuration was proposed as a minimum
standard in order to take full advantage of the systems
capabilities:
Hardware component--Server
IBM PS2 Model 95
190 MB available RAM
XT 486 Mhz processor speed (X86 family 5 mod 2 stepping 5)
2.2 GByte hard disk capacity (or greater)
Software component--Server
Windows NT 4.x O/S
Oracle 7.3 for WindowsNT including:
SQL *Net for TCP/IP
SQL *Loader
SQL *Plus for Windows
Communication
T3 fiber to all sites then TCP/IP over Token Ring/Ethernet
cards
Workstation configuration
Compaq Deskpro (or equivalent)
P166 Processor
24 MB RAM (12 MB RAM minimum)
Minimum 60 MB available hard disk space
Window95 or WindowsNT 4.0 Client O/S
The class diagram referred to in FIGS. 1A-1B is shown generally by
numeral 10. Employee table 20 serves as the repository for all
information about an employee critical to a training department and
qualification processes. The unique identifier for this file is an
employee's social security number.
It is contemplated that the Employee table 20 may be populated
either manually by the user or via an independent process which is
Open Database Compliant 2.0 (ODBC) compliant. The present invention
is designed to be ODBC 2.0 compliant. An external application that
adheres to the process constraints of the present invention is the
preferred method of maintaining synchronous data with primary
employee data within an organization's human resources department.
The design of the system prevents deletion of any employee record
from Employee table 20 if the targeted employee has completed any
training events as documented within the system.
A Shift table 30 serves as a method to store identified employee
group or work period identifiers. The Shift table 30 allows the
user to identify a work group to which an employee belongs. When
the Shift table 30 is used the employee may belong to zero, one, or
many work groups. The Shift table 30 must be populated prior to
assigning shifts or groups to employees.
A Jobs table 40 captures identifying information of the various
positions, responsibilities and jobs to which employees are
assigned. The Jobs table 40 allows for an association of an
identified position to employees requirements and tasks that are
the "children" of the job(s). The Jobs table 40 must be populated
prior to populating the employee table.
An Activity Type table 50 allows for an identification of the
various activities prior to an identification of tasks.
Prior to the conduct of detailed task analysis, it is necessary to
identify the various functional areas of interest. These areas are
referred to as Duty Areas 60 and the entity 60 allows for the
collection of critical information related to training such as
identity of an area, subject matter expert and definition of the
area. The Duty Areas 60 must be populated prior to the commencement
of task analysis.
A Task to Enabling Objectives table 70 allows the user to associate
enabling objectives with tasks that are supported by the enabling
objectives. In the present invention, enabling objectives may be
specific skills or hybridized skill statements. The table 70 is
populated through the a Task Navigator, which allows for graphical
association of enabling objectives with tasks.
Enabling Objectives 80 are skills statements or hybridized skills
statements which support a performance of tasks or a transfer of
required skills to a job candidate or incumbent. Each instance of
an Enabling Objective 80 is identified during the task analysis
process and each instance is entered into the system with
supporting information such as an objective type, importance, edit
dates and associated comments. The Enabling Objective table 80 must
be populated before using the task, questions or other graphic
navigators.
The Job Certifications table 90 is available to support the
qualification and/or development processes within the present
invention. For each job present in the current system it is
necessary to identify and include a Job Certification 90. The table
90 is populated at the time a job is identified and provides a
reference point for all qualification related features.
Certifications 100 are used to represent collected skills that
comprise skill sets that are important to successful job
performance. Certifications 100 may also be used to represent
unique skill sets possessed by an employee but not associated with
critical or core competencies of the organization's business. The
Certification table 100 allows for classification of the skill sets
and the definition of specific requirements relating to the
maintenance of the skills. The table 100 functions as a reference
table for all qualification related features. The table 100 must be
populated prior to associating requirements with jobs or
certifications to employees.
The Employee Certification table 110 may be updated upon successful
completion of training events, or on verification of employee
certifications. The table 110 indicates collective skill sets
possessed by the employee and current status of the skill sets. The
employee certifications features include a capability to renew and
extend the validity of certifications, and warnings are provided to
a user of actual and potential ramifications of consecutive
extensions relating to expired employee certifications.
Tracking certifications is of critical importance to regulated
industries and is supported by an employee certifications history
entity (not shown). The employee certification history entity
allows for the system to monitor consecutive extensions and permits
a record of the identity of the person who authorized the extension
and the date when the authorization occurred.
The Training Period 120, also known as an Assign Period, is an
essential part of scheduling within the present invention
methodology, as it is a record of each instance of a training
program. The Assign Period identifies a beginning and ending date
for each training program instance. The Assign Period must be
populated prior to the scheduling of training or enrollment of
students.
Training Program Courses 130, also known as Program Lessons, is
used to define a curriculum for a given program. Based upon the
association of the Training Program object 180 and the Lessons
object 270, a user is able to define a required content for any
sequence of instruction as dictated by the training program
description.
The Training Program Courses 130 need not be used in order to
support the processes of present invention, but is available as a
"bridge" to development of automated scheduling of training
events.
Available Training Settings table 140, also known as Training
Settings, permits a user to define training selection, training
locations or general training venues. When developing training
events, a specific venue (laboratory, simulator, computer room,
etc.) may be required to successfully transfer skills to the
student. This table 140 allows for the control of the identifiers
used while permitting flexibility. Completing information required
by Available Training Settings table 140 is a prerequisite for
development of Lesson 270 information or use of association tools
(Navigators) which access the Lesson 270 information.
Once the task analysis process is completed by the instructional
technologists, then designers are able to create the associated
training materials. During development of these materials, it is
important to know the venue(s) in which training is to be
conducted. A Task Training Settings table 150 allows a user to
associate tasks with specific training venues or selections as an
aid to event planning and materials development. The table 150 is
reliant upon Training Settings 140 and Tasks 160 for key
information.
The Tasks table 160 is central to the training systems design
module of the present invention and contains identifying
information for tasks performed within an organization. The
identifying information includes key attributes of a task (duty
area, activity type, importance factors, etc.) as well as a
terminal objective statement and "special requirements" that may be
associated with successful task performance.
As the definition implies, tasks will most likely have varying
degrees of complexity. Some tasks require such complex skills that
the skills themselves may be considered "daughter" tasks. To
support this reality, the Task table 160 and associated rules have
been developed to allow a recursive link between tasks. It is
contemplated that each task contained in the Task table 160 may
have one parent together with many children or siblings. In order
for a parent-child relationship to exist, the child task must
consist of compound-complex skills required to successfully
complete a critical element as defined in the parent task.
The Tasks table 160 must be populated prior to taking advantage of
any training development features in this embodiment of the current
invention, as all training materials arise from tasks and resulting
analysis. It is contemplated that tasks 160, enabling objectives 70
and questions 350 are often developed simultaneously. Associations
between the Tasks table 160 and other entities within the model,
make possible true impact reporting from any point within employee
training, development and qualification processes. The Tasks table
160 is reliant upon Activity Type 50, Duty Area 60 and Jobs 40 for
its existence.
When training has been delivered to support job qualification or
the attainment of improved skills, it is essential to document the
completion of the training. The Lesson Attendance table 170 is
coupled to and related with Training Schedule 260, Period 120,
Training Program 180 and Employee 20 objects to support the
documentation. Lesson Attendance 170 is indirectly tied to the
Certifications 100 and Employee Certifications 110 through a
relationship, or a potential relationship, that may exist between
Certifications 100 and Lessons 270. This relationship is not shown
in FIGS. 1A-1B. The indirect relationship allows for an automatic
issue or renewal of employee certifications 110 providing this
action is permitted at the time the Certification 100 is
defined.
To provide both positive and negative reporting capabilities on
training completion while maintaining a normalized database, the
Lesson Attendance table 170 is populated at the time of student
enrollment is entered into the Training Schedule table 260.
The Training Program entity 180 provides for the identification of
the content descriptions and requirements (external documents)
which define training content and serve as the starting point for
all Training Schedules 260 via the Period 120.
The user enters program identification information and required
duration information for each administered program prior to
defining a Training Schedule 260.
The Course table 190 provides a method of categorizing training, to
be delivered to students, into topics or areas of knowledge. The
table 190 must exist prior to the definition of any Lesson 270 and
may be used to develop general curriculum statements.
Certifications 100 are representations of the skills required to
successfully perform Tasks 160 or do a Job 40. Skills are
transferred to the student via a construct known as a Lesson 270.
Some Lessons 270 are sufficiently defined that successful
completion of the Lesson 270 occurs only after mastery of required
skills. Therefore, Lessons 270 may result in a direct award or
renewal of Certifications 100.
The Lesson Certifications table 195 allows a user to define Lessons
270 that may be used to issue or renew Certifications 100. It also
serves as a tool to identify weaknesses or deficiencies in specific
curriculum developed by an organization.
The Student Registration table 200 may exist outside of the system
as a "virtual" object in that students enrolled in scheduled
training become a part of or are registered to a training program
by virtue of instructional content. While processes support the
creation of a Student Registration Table, direct enrollment of
Employees 20 to scheduled Lessons 270 and Scheduled Evaluations 320
is a preferred method and is employed in one embodiment of the
current invention.
Student registration is a function of Employees 20, Periods 120,
Programs 180, Training Schedule 260 and Evaluation Schedule
320.
A frequent request of process auditors relates to materials used to
transfer skills that are required to perform Tasks 160 associated
with Jobs 40. In a performance-based approach to training
development and delivery, the materials used to transfer the skills
are inexorably linked to the training materials.
A Task to Training Materials Matrix 210 allows a user to associate,
using the Task Navigator, Lessons 270 and Tasks 160. Further,
utilization of the entity 270 assists in development of specific
curriculum statements and task training completion documentation.
The Task Navigator is a graphical tool used to visualize the
relationship between Jobs 40, Tasks 160, and related
information.
The Job Performance Measure (JPM) table 220 allows for the
identification of activities used to either transfer integration of
skills or assess an employee's ability to function at higher
cognitive, psychomotor or affective levels. The JPM 220 is
developed as the result of the Enabling Objectives 70, Tasks 160
and Procedures and References 300 associated with the performance
of a Job 40. A user will enter JPM identification, author and
description according to protocols established by the
organization.
The Questions for Task table 230 allows for an association of
referenced-based objective criteria or Questions 350 and the Tasks
160 to which the Questions 350 are related. In the methodology of
the present invention, no question may be considered valid unless
the question directly supports a Task 160 or an Enabling Objective
80.
The Questions for Task table 230 is populated by a user via a
graphical association and display tool such as the Questions
Navigator. In addition to providing documentation for questions
supported by an identified task, this table 230 permits rapid
identification of questions affected by changes to task specific
attributes.
JPMs 220 are related to Tasks 160 as the JPMs 220 arise from a
combination or application of related Tasks 160 under various
conditions. The Task to JPM table 240 allows a user to employ a
Task Navigator to create and display an association between a JPM
220 and several Tasks 160 which are supported by and associated
with a given JPM 220.
Similar to other associations within the present methodology, the
Task to JPM table 240 assists an instructional designer in
developing program content and the instructional technologist in
rapidly identifying items which may be affected by (or have an
affect on) the JPM 220. A JPM 220 with a poor performance trend may
indicate a weakness in the Training Program 180 content, Available
Training Settings 140 or inappropriate reinforcement by line
management of stated training values and goals.
The Cycle table 250 permits the user to divide the larger Training
Period 120 into manageable units of time. Rather than limiting the
user to months or quarters, which may not be suitable for rotating
shift worker training schedules, the Cycle 250 is defined at the
time of creation by the Period 120 and selected beginning and
ending dates.
Cycles 250 are reliant on the Period 120 and Training Program 180
objects and are prerequisites for Training Schedules 260 and
Evaluation Schedules 320. The Cycle 250 also provides for comments
pertaining to Cycle table 250 content if desired.
The Training Schedule 260 is developed by an association of Lessons
270 with a defined program-period Cycle entity 250. The user will
select, based on established criteria or protocols, those Lessons
270 to be delivered to a student. When the Training Schedule 260
has been created, the user may then enroll Employees 20 thereby
creating a Lesson Attendance 170 entry for each Employee 20.
A transfer of skills is accomplished through a variety of methods
including classical classroom training. Regardless of the method
used, each method may be thought of as a Lesson 270 developed from
Enabling Objectives 80 that directly support a satisfactory
performance of Tasks 160. The Lesson table 270 allows the user to
identify each lesson and track the existence of the Lesson 270 on
the system. This capability is critical to operating facilities in
a regulated industry. The skills presented in each Lesson 270 may
provide support for a defense in a wrongful damage lawsuit and also
serve as a useful tool to improve a workforce's skill set over a
given period of time.
Lessons 270 rely only on the Course 190 to which they belong for
existence but are a prerequisite for the Task Training Matrix 210,
Training Schedule 270 and automated certification issue and renewal
features.
Lessons 270 are developed from Enabling Objectives 80 which are
related by subject area or Task 160. The Lesson Objective table 275
permits a user to identify Lessons 270 that support each of the
Enabling Objectives 80 and provides a method to identify weaknesses
within training development processes or programs.
When Questions 350 are developed and used as part of a
qualification for a Job 40. The Questions 350 must be directly
supported by the skills required to do the Job 40. Failure to meet
this requirement invalidates written examinations and may be
grounds for grievances or other complaints. Further, Questions 350
that are not supported by skills imparted to trainees provide only
negative returns on the training investment. The skills which are
imparted to trainees can be identified by an Enabling Objective 80
to Lesson 270 relationship.
The Question to Enabling Objective table 280 allows the user, via
the Questions Navigator, to associate each Question 350 with one or
more Enabling Objectives 80. The available association also serves
as a method to validate questions when task analysis data is
amended.
In order for a Task 160 to be valid, the Task 160 must have some
standard of performance associated with it. In industry, these
standards are generally referred to as Procedures and References.
The Procedures and References table 300 allows a user to associate
and depict a relationship between various Procedures and References
and the Tasks 160 performed by the various Jobs 40. This operation
is accomplished with the aid of a Task Navigator.
The Task to Reference table 290 also provides for Referential
Impact Reporting which is used to identify a potential training
audience resulting from the change to a standard, reference or
procedure. The Procedures and References table 300 includes
regulations which have far-reaching potential to aid in the
prevention of injury, damage to assets or safety of the public. By
correlating the References 300 to Tasks 160, the Tasks 160 to the
Jobs 40 and the Jobs 40 to the Employee 20; a user is able to
ensure all appropriate personnel are notified in the event of a
standards change.
The Procedures and References table 300 allows a user to identify
specific references, procedures and standards that may apply to the
training related materials, jobs or personnel. This table 300 must
be populated prior to developing a Task to Reference 290
relationship or a Question to Reference 360 associations. The
Procedures and References table 300 may also be used to monitor a
revision status and author of a specific procedure or
reference.
In many cases, evaluations are conducted to support job
qualification or to assess an employee's attainment of skills. It
is essential to document an employee's performance from all
available evaluations. The Evaluation Results table 310 is related
to and associated with the following tables Evaluation Schedule
260, Period 120, Program 180 and Employee 20. The association
between the Evaluation Results 310 and the enumerated tables 260,
120, 180, and 20 are used as support for the Evaluation Results
310. For reporting and processing purposes the Evaluation Results
310 are also associated with Exams 330, Exam Questions 340 and
Questions 350.
The Evaluation Results table 310 is populated at the time of
student enrollment to Scheduled Evaluations 320. The population is
processed in this manner in order to provide both positive and
negative reporting capabilities on Evaluation Results 310 while
maintaining a normalized database.
The Evaluation Schedule 320 permits a user to assign specific Exams
330 to an established Training Cycle 250. If evaluations and
lessons are both defined for an established Training Cycle 250,
then at the time of student enrollment records are simultaneously
created in Evaluation Results table 310 and Lesson Attendance
170.
Exams 330 or Examinations are developed to assess the level of
skills mastery of all employees. Typically, exams are thought of as
written tests. However, any employee assessment tool may be
referred to as an Exam 330. Exams 330 must be identified and named
within the present invention scheduling, however the Examination
does not have to be built within the application until the Exam 330
is ready to be implemented. This allows greater flexibility for the
instructional designer and provides a mechanism within the system
for tracking an intent and authorship associated with each Exam
330. The Exam table 330 is also used to assist in the
identification of individuals who are authorized to generate Exams
330 from the system or to edit an assembled Exam 330.
The Exam Question table 340 is a construct of Exams 330 and
Questions 350. The Exam Question table 340 is populated via the
process in the current system referred to as an Exam Builder. The
Exam Builder allows a user to create, sequence, compare and assess
the content of examinations.
Access to the Exam Question table 340 provides a user with an
ability to obtain statistics on examination variance and question
use frequency. This feature assists a designer in accurately and
objectively assessing student skill mastery.
A Questions table 350 provides for an identification of referenced
based objective criteria in order for validating job competence
based on cognitive skills. A user enters identifying information
such as level of difficulty, time to complete, author, usage and
other primary attributes. The user then enters a question and
answer text together with the location of any graphic files to be
included with the question at the time of question generation.
Question generation results from Exam generation via Exam Questions
340 and Exams 330.
As each Question 350 is derived from analyzed Enabling Objectives
80 and supports Tasks 160, each Question 360 is supported by
Reference Materials 300. The Question to Reference table 360 allows
a user to identify the various references which substantiate a
question and also provide for a rapid method of identifying
questions that are impacted by a challenge in standards or
references.
The class diagram referred to in FIG. 3 is shown generally by
numeral 450. A Shift 452 is a collection of Employees 458 with
common job requirements. The Shift 452 is responsible for managing
the referenced set of employees, and the Shift 452 can be viewed as
a collection that is inheriting attributes typical of this type of
entity.
Each Employee 458 must be assigned a Job 462. At the present time
the system restricts the number of jobs to one per employee. Each
Employee 458 may have zero or more duties in addition to his or her
primary Job 462. It is contemplated in the future to expand this
facility to incorporate multiple jobs per employee. A Job 462 may
be viewed as a logical grouping of Tasks 468 of which the employee
is responsible to perform. A Job 462 is a type of collection.
Certification 464 is a class that provides a certification template
that contains such information as certification requirements and
expiration periods. Certifications 464 represent and are linked to
Licenses 470 and 472 and certificates (not shown) that are required
to perform a selected Job 462. Certifications 464 require that an
employee demonstrate competency through training and evaluation,
before a certification is awarded. The Certifications 464 manage a
relationship between Job 462, Training Programs (not shown), and
Employee Certification 460.
A License 470 is a specific type of Certification 464 and manages
License 470 related information such as license number. A Federal
License 472 is a license relating to federal issue or requirements.
The Federal License 472 manages such specific information as the
serial number or docket number.
Employees 458 are required to be certified to perform certain Jobs
462. The Employee Certification 460 manages relationships and
events required to track an Employee's 458 Job 462 requirements and
Certifications 464. The function of the Employee Certification 460
includes determining rectification requirements as well as
demonstrated employee competencies which are determined from access
to Exam 454 results.
The class diagram referred to in FIG. 6 is shown generally by
numeral 600. A Duty Area 606 is a system collection of duties or
functional responsibilities. A Duty Area 606 may be viewed as a
logical grouping of Tasks 608 based on functional area. A Duty Area
606 can be viewed as a type of collection. Activity Type 614 is a
general classification of a task(s) conditional que(s). For
example, a Task 608 may be defined as a maintenance task, an
abnormal task, an emergency task, etc. An Activity Type 614 may be
viewed as a logical grouping of Tasks 608 based on a general
classification. An Activity Type 614 is a type of collection.
Tasks 608 are a central focus of the current invention. A Task 608
is an activity or group of activities which employees are required
to perform. The Tasks 608 manage relationships between Tasks 608
and ProcRef 602, Job 604, Enabling Objective 610, Training Setting
616, Activity Type 614, Job Performance Measures 612, and Duty
Areas 606.
Enabling Objectives 610 are a logical grouping of similar skills
and knowledge required to perform a Task 608. An Enabling Objective
610 is defined by a category, description, domain (Blooms's
Taxonomy) and degree. The Enabling Objectives 610 manage attributes
as well as relationships between Tasks 608 and questions (not
shown) that are resident in the database of the current system.
Questions are also associated with and created for an Enabling
Objective 610.
A Job Performance Measure (JPM) 612 is used to determine an
employee's ability to perform a selected task under various
conditions. A JPM 612 includes a description and some history
information. The JPM 612 manages these attributes as well as
relationships between Tasks 608 and JPMs 612.
The ProcRef 602 is a class that includes descriptions of all
procedures, standards or other references that support job
performance. The class 602 includes a description and some history
information. The class 602 manages these attributes as well as
relationships between Tasks 608 and ProcRefs 602.
The class diagram referred to in FIG. 7 is shown generally by
numeral 650. A Training Setting 666 may define a classroom, lab,
simulator or some other facility used for delivering training. A
Lesson 668 is defined as specific task based training material. The
Lesson 668 manages creation and deletion of lessons, including
associating lessons to tasks (not show) and identifying Training
Settings 666.
A Course 670 is comprised of a general body of knowledge. A Course
670 may be viewed as a group of Lessons 670 under a common title. A
Course 670 is a type of collection. A Training Program 664 is
assembled to provide either initial or qualification training.
Training Programs 664 are designed to provide an employee with the
training required to be certified to perform his or her job.
Training Programs manage training information and associated
relationships including Courses 670 and Certifications (not
shown).
A Training Period 652 includes a beginning and ending date and is
used to organize Training Cycles 654. A Training Period 652 has a
collection of Training Cycles 654. A Training Cycle 654 may have
zero or more Quizzes 656 associated with the Training Cycle 654.
The Quizzes 656 may be scheduled periodically throughout the
Training Cycle 654. A Training Cycle is a subset of a Training
Period 652 and occurs with the Training Period's 652 beginning and
ending dates and is used to schedule lessons and evaluations within
a scheduled training program. Scheduled Training 658 is a type of
Training Period 652 that has a Training Program 664 associated with
the Scheduled Training 658. A Scheduled Lesson 660 is a type of
Training Cycle 654 that has Lessons 668 associated with the
Scheduled Lesson 660.
The class diagram referred to in FIG. 12 is shown generally by
numeral 900. An evaluation master is the evaluation template from
which all Evaluations 906 are generated. The evaluation master can
be viewed as an evaluation without a schedule or student associated
with it. Evaluation 906 questions are drawn from the Questions
table 908.
The Question table 908 stores questions and Question Text 912 along
with additional related information. The Question table 908 is also
associated with Tasks 904 and Enabling Objectives 902. Information
from these tables 902 and 904 are used in selecting Questions 908.
Question graphics are not stored within the current system.
However, names of files that contain graphics may be stored with a
Question 908. The Question Text 912 contains question and answer
text as well as a filename for any associated graphics. Question
Text 912 makes available an ability to store and retrieve question
and answer text. The question and answer text are stored in the
same database field and must be separated by a special
character.
A Scheduled Evaluation 910 is created from an Evaluation 906, but
includes an individuals score and a date taken. An Evaluation 906
is given when required to certify an individual. The Evaluation 906
is usually given at an end of a training program.
The class diagram referred to in FIG. 15 is shown generally by
numeral 1050. A Report Interface 1056 is a designated report driver
accessed and used in conjunction with the current system. A Filter
Interface 1054 allows a user to specify a set of filters to be
applied to information contained in the current system. The Query
Builder 1052 is used to create and maintain data window queries.
The Query Builder 1052 retrieves SQL statements from data windows
and modifies the statements according to an active set of user
defined filters. The Query Builder 1052 uses the Filter Interface
1054 to accomplish the retrieval of SQL statements.
The reader's attention is directed to the aforementioned papers and
documents filed concurrently with this specification in connection
with this application and which are open to public inspection with
this specification, and the contents of all such papers and
documents are incorporated herein by reference. The titles referred
to in this paragraph are identified as follows: "Etude Methodology"
authored by Gerald T. Hollingsworth in 1996; "Etude 3.1
Requirements Analysis"; "Version 2.0 User Guide--Etude" by Gerald
Hollingsworth; and "Etude Training Program--Modules 1 through 5"
authored by Gerald T. Hollingsworth in 1997.
* * * * *